Shunning - 2009
Shunning - 2009
The new/old Divide & Conquer
On the third hand, every little bit helps.
Shunning is an ancient mechanism of social control. In times long past, when every member of the tribe/family group depended for their very existence on the good will of the other members, being shunned was a death sentence. It still feels that way—kind of a hard-wired response.
Even though we’re no longer hunting/gathering in groups for our survival, there’s something in humans that needs the good will of our peers. Imagine working in an office or crew where no one will chat with you, stand near you, look at you. Even if they do so for strictly business-related purposes, if there is no incidental human contact things become very uncomfortable.
If there are enough different identified groups within a society that are targeted, social cohesion is impossible. Without social cohesion effectiveness at damnear anything is impossible.
Here’s the latest target group:
[NYT link] third-hand smoke... “Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff
Well, you Winickoff, something else everyone knows is that that the widely publicized results from that EPA ‘study’ are a pile of steaming horse hockey. But even tho it became just one of those things everyone knows, that knowledge didn’t sufficiently alienate your target group, did it? So here you come with scaaary-bad faktoids like these:
"breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children”
[Third-hand smoke is] the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room....
...Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic.
R U freakin’ kidding with that?!? Alexander freakin’ Litvinenko?!?!?
"There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”...
Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ‘Get away.’"
Toxic. All smokers are toxic. Not just when they’re actually smoking. All the time. For everyone.
BTW - Has anyone done a breakdown on that fog of Estee Lauder that seems to take up residence like a disaffected phantasm in every office elevator?
Here’s where he tips his hand—his goal is not scientific inquiry for the sake of Truth. His goal is changing behavior:
The belief that second-hand smoke harms children’s health was not independently associated with strict smoking bans in homes and cars, the researchers found. On the other hand, the belief that third-hand smoke was harmful greatly increased the likelihood the respondent also would enforce a strict smoking ban at home, Dr. Winickoff said.
“That tells us we’re onto an important new health message here,” he said. “What we heard in focus group after focus group was, ‘I turn on the fan and the smoke disappears.’ It made us realize how many people think about second-hand smoke — they’re telling us they know it’s bad but they’ve figured out a way to do it."
Heaven forbid that people figure a way to cope. Now “third hand smoke” will become a popular term and the shunning will begin anew.
Keep in mind, anyone who persists in this eeevil and unPC behavior is likely one of those individualists who is also likely to question—nay *snork* at—AGW, Purell, the 25 pounds of spackle in the bowel, and all the other things everybody knows.
It’s inconceivable that we would trade an iota of individual Freedom for that purported enhancement of our lives. But. I await the new set of laws banning anyone who has third hand smoke on their clothing from entering any public building. That oughta give clear relief to our local Planning Commission.
Whenever anyone says “everyone knows”, the first thing you do is ignore the rest.
“Everyone knows there’s global warming.” Yeah, right.
The NYT seems to be right on the Po-210 thing:
Polonium-210: A Volatile Radioelement in Cigarettes (Jan 1964)
But they go all hysterical with the Russian guy. He wasn’t killed by making him smoke 10 packs at a sitting. I’m surprised they didn’t bring up the connection with US prison gas chambers (back in the old days), that used hydrogen cyanide.
“Third-hand smoke”? We really should be worrying about 4th- and 5th-hand smoke. What about the smoke from George Washington’s pipe? Or Churchill’s cigars? (Everyone in England should be dead by now.)
The jerks who want to micromanage everyone else’s life should get a life.
Posted by ZZMike on 01/07/09 at 10:53 AM
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